


Prove me wrong

by stjarna



Series: Season 5 spec fics / coda / missing scenes [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, One Shot, Season 5 spec, Some Fluff, SpaceTime, Spoilers based on promo for 5x08, angst with hopeful end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 20:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13372374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna
Summary: A S5 spec one-shot based on the 5x08 promo.





	Prove me wrong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AGL03](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGL03/gifts).



> Big thank you to @dilkirani for the beta.
> 
> As usual, lots of chatting with and meta by @agl03 inspired this fic as well. I like to think we often like to think alike.
> 
> P.S. The banner makes the fic look way angstier than it really is :)

It was like déjà vu, reliving an argument almost two years old. Part of the team was desperate to use Robin’s knowledge, her visions of the present, past, and future, to prevent tragedy, while Fitz reminded them that time is fixed and cannot be changed. The fourth dimension.

Daisy, in particular, hadn’t taken too kindly to his scientific reasoning.

“So, that’s it? I’m the Destroyer of Worlds?” she’d yelled, gesturing at herself, before pointing at the designs on the wall that Fitz hadn’t ripped off. “We have a way to get back to the past but it won’t fucking matter?”

Daisy’s eyes had been desperate, angry, waiting for an answer from Fitz that never came.

He’d stared at her, his jaw clenched and eyes watery, still holding on to one of the technical drawings. Robin’s mind had conjured up these visions of designs that would allow them to go back to the past, back to their time.

But it would be up to Fitz to build the device. Jemma knew his mind was filled with memories of the last designs that bore his signature even though the blueprints had at least in part been drawn up by somebody else: the Framework, AIDA, Looking Glass. She knew the fourth dimension wasn’t the only thing to make him hesitant.

Then Fitz had turned around, rushing out of the Zephyr’s lab, ignoring Coulson calling his name.

* * *

Jemma stops for a moment, one hand holding on to the railing of the stairs that lead to the Zephyr’s cargo hold.

He stands by the ramp, staring into the barren landscape. The gravity storm still rages outside, dried up leaves, sand, debris blowing in the air like ashes. It’s like another déjà vu, another scene almost two years old recreated in a different time, a different setting, but with much of the same fears and uncertainties.

His hands hang by his side, his left still clutching the piece of paper with Robin’s charcoal drawing. His posture is tired, defeated, a man who’d traveled through time and space in hopes of reuniting with the people he loved, to rescue them, only to realize it may all have been for naught.

Jemma takes the last few steps down the ladder and walks up to him. His head moves briefly in her direction, letting her know that he noticed she’d followed him. But he doesn’t speak, continues to stare outside, his tight jaw slowly moving side to side, his lips exhaling a stuttering breath, tears clinging to his lashes.

Jemma inhales deeply before interlacing her fingers with his. A faint smile flashes across her face when she notices him squeezing her hand back.

“You’re right, Fitz,” she whispers, her thumb gently gliding across his knuckle. “Maybe some things are inevitable.”

One corner of his mouth twitches into a pained, microscopic smile, while his eyes, still staring into the post-apocalyptic landscape, blink rapidly.

Jemma follows his gaze, watching the raging storm. “But shouldn’t we at least try?”

Her eyes wander back to Fitz. “You said yourself nothing is impossible anymore. When it comes down to it, spacetime is a theory. Yes, there’s mathematical evidence. Yes, there’s science. But theories have been disproven before when new evidence is discovered. What if the theory of spacetime is wrong? What if it’s _not_ fixed?”

Fitz draws in a slow breath, his eyes locked onto the horizon. Jemma squeezes his hand more tightly, hoping to get a reaction from him.

Suddenly his brow furrows. He looks down at their intertwined hands, slowly lifting them up, turning them until the back of Jemma’s hand faces up.

“The theory is wrong,” he mumbles quietly.

He looks up at Jemma, a smile slowly appearing on his face.

Jemma chuckles, almost reflexively at the sight of his bright, optimistic eyes, and yet she can’t hide her confusion over his sudden change of mind. She wrinkles her forehead, shaking her head slightly.

Fitz laughs, bringing their interlaced hands up and pressing a kiss against the back of Jemma’s hand, before looking back at her. “The theory is wrong,” he repeats. “You’ve disproven it!”

A confused chuckle escapes Jemma’s lips. “I have?”

Fitz nods, his lips still pulled into a wide smile. “You’ve disproven it by proving it.”

Jemma shakes her head, squinting in befuddlement. “What do you—?”

“Why’d you hold my hand that day?” he asks, his blue eyes gazing intensely at her. “You didn’t have to.”

Jemma’s lips part, the corners of her mouth twitching into the ghost of a smile, as her mind slowly comes to the same conclusion Fitz’s had already reached. “But I wanted to.”

“It was your choice.” His voice is warm and quiet. “You could have changed that part of Charles’ vision. Changed the future. Created a different timeline. ”

Jemma purses her lips, shrugging slightly. “Well, it wouldn’t have been a significant change.”

His eyes grow soft, and he smiles almost shyly. “Would have been for me. ‘Cause in that moment, I finally allowed myself to believe that maybe it was really possible. You. Me. Together in a way I’d thought—”

He falls silent and Jemma can’t help but lean closer and kiss him, as if to finish his sentence.

“We can change the future,” she says when she breaks their kiss.

Fitz nods. “We can create a different timeline and save humanity. Maybe we don’t know how, but we can! Maybe it’s not one big change. Maybe it’s a lot of little ones.”

Jemma sighs in relief, smiling widely. “We should tell the others. I think what you said earlier may have upset some people.”

Fitz grimaces, dropping his head back and groaning quietly. “God, this whole time travel thing has turned me into a grumpy old man, hasn’t it?”

Jemma can’t help but laugh out loud. “Oh, Fitz. You were a grumpy old man long before you froze yourself for 80 years.”

Fitz joins in her laughter, before drawing in a deep breath. He brings the back of Jemma’s hand to his lips, kissing it gently. “Let’s go and make _our_ future, shall we?”

Jemma smiles, bobbing her head in agreement, before sealing their promise with a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> It's kinda funny to think that in my second AoS fic ever written (in May 2016), [Events on the Horizon](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6767089), I had Fitz bring up the exact same thing (Jemma choosing to make that part of Charles' vision a reality)... and now canon may be revisiting spacetime all over again.


End file.
